Background: Because the demise of Kodak B&W Plus-X emulsion (31), shooting B&W outside is challenging. 5222/7222 is the only Kodak B&W camera stock. Outside it is has an exposure index of 250. In the test described below the daylight was metered at 8,000 foot-candles. At 24fps this would require a f stop setting of around f64, or a very dark ND filter. Most lenses are sharpest at about 2 stops from open, this is impossible for 22 outside without using an ND15 or ND18 to get f5.6 or below. The contrast of direct sunlight & shadows is a struggle for any photographic medium.

5222 vs 5234 B&W in Direct Sunlight

Test Information

Film Information

5222 Kodak B&W 35mm DOUBLE-X Negative

Exposure Index: EI 200(Tungsten) 250(Daylight)

5234 Kodak Panchromatic B&W Duplicate Negative

Exposure Index: ? Rated EI 6 for test.

Lighting

Direct mid day sunlight - Metered @ 8000 fc

Camera Setup

Mitchell Super 35mm High Speed 4 perf 75mm prime lens

5222: f11 ND9 @ 24fps 1/48sec

5234: f5.6 @24fps 1/48sec

Processing

Kodak D96 B&W Negative Process

Transfer

Spirit 2K HD 1080P 23.98 1.78 extraction

da vinci 2K+ DVNR2K

Settings constant for all transfers.

Test Results: The grain structure and response of 5234 is clearly finer. It is a very smooth image and out performs the 5222 outside. It is availible from Kodak in both 35mm and 16mm. We will do a test of 16mm soon, I am sure the diffrence will be even more dramatic. While this stock would be hard to shoot indoors, outside it is beautiful. If processed D97 it would have an exposure index of about 18 allowing for less direct sunlight. It is also 5 cents cheaper per foot in 35mm.